by Mel Odom
As Juhg looked up, meaty impacts filled the cavern above him. Two more guards tumbled into the pit as well, another with an arrow through his head and the second disemboweled. A dwarven war cry rang out and Juhg recognized Cobner’s ebullient bull-like voice at once.
Raisho, looking disheveled, dropped into the pit beside Juhg. “Well then, scribbler, as rescues go, I guess this is a close one.”
Juhg couldn’t speak.
Raisho grabbed him around the waist and threw him out of the pit. Juhg landed facedown in the sand, catching a glimpse of Cobner battling Nhass and driving the big goblinkin back against the cavern wall. Nhass never truly had a chance against the dwarven warrior’s wrath. Craugh was upon Tuhl like a cat upon a mouse. The wizard’s hand gripped the fat man’s throat and he held him up off his feet almost effortlessly.
Before Juhg could get to his feet, Raisho hauled himself out of the pit and nearly landed on him. Then the young sailor pulled him to his feet and pushed him toward the door.
“Let’s go, scribbler. There’s a lot of tunnels between here and the exit.”
Juhg ran, limping as best he could. As he passed Craugh, he heard Tuhl’s neck snap in the wizard’s grasp. Almost casually, the wizard tossed the fat man into the pit.
“How … how did you find me?” Juhg asked as they reached the tunnel outside.
“Craugh,” Raisho replied. “He had an enchantment placed on ye. Allowed him to track you durin’ them few times Jassamyn wasn’t able to find her way ‘cross them shiftin’ sands.”
An enchantment? The thought didn’t sit happily in Juhg’s mind. Why would Craugh create such an enchantment and place it on him?
In the tunnel, Jassamyn started to head in the opposite direction than the way Juhg had been brought. She fired her bow twice more as warning cries from goblins raced through the tunnels.
“Not that way,” Juhg said.
“That way is out,” the elven maid replied. “I carefully memorized the turns.”
“Back this way,” Juhg said. “The third section of The Book of Time lies back in this direction.”
Craugh joined them, summoning a green ball of light that hovered near him and lit up the tunnel. He shook his head. “We can’t come this far without taking the gemstones there. Lead on, apprentice.”
We can’t? Juhg wondered. Or you can’t? Either way, he took off as best as he could. With the adrenaline surging through his body and his survival instinct hitting him hard, some of the pain left him and he ran back the way they’d come.
He dodged beneath a goblinkin axe as the creature stepped out of a tunnel ahead, slid briefly through the sand, and pushed himself up on the other side. Raisho engaged the goblinkin slaver with his cutlass, batting aside the other’s futile attempts to defend himself, then cutting the creature’s throat and shoving his foe from his path.
Juhg ran on. Two goblinkin slavers went down in front of him as the tunnel straightened and Jassamyn had more room to use her bow. He repeated the turns out loud as he ran, hoping that he’d made no mistakes in his counting.
He paused in an intersection, momentarily confused because goblinkin seemed to be everywhere and everything looked the same. Farther back the way he’d come, Cobner stopped at a line of chained slaves and brought his battle-axe down. Sparks flew and the chain lay in pieces, vanished before good dwarven steel.
The dwarven slaves among the dwellers cried out in hope and anger, swiftly pulling the chain through their manacles to earn their freedom. They picked up weapons from the fallen goblinkin and followed Cobner as he ran to catch up to the companions.
Getting his directions right, Juhg took off at a hobbling gait again.
Almost immediately, they were confronted by a superior force of goblinkin. He halted and stepped back.
“This way,” Cobner roared, pulling on Juhg’s arm.
Turning, Juhg followed the dwarf. The wound in his face hurt terribly and he could tell it was bleeding again because he felt wetness running down his neck. His mouth tasted of sand and his breath came in strained, dry gasps.
“Back!” Cobner roared to the newly freed slaves as they rounded a bend in the tunnel. Dwarves led the dwellers, but they all had weapons. Cobner waved them into a tunnel opposite the one they took, leaving the intersection clear.
Cobner led the way around the tunnel and came to a dead end in a storeroom filled with supplies. He cursed. “I made a mistake,” he growled. “We’ll have to go back.”
Back in the tunnel, he pushed them back against the wall just as the sound of goblinkin voices and thudding feet filled the tunnel.
The goblinkin came at the run and raced down the tunnel that had not been taken, evidently discounting the tunnel to the supply room because they knew it was a dead end.
Juhg breathed raggedly and hoped that the goblinkin didn’t stop going.
“Now,” Cobner whispered. “Quickly.” Holding his battle-axe in both hands, he ran back into the tunnel they’d just quit, taking the path back toward the gemstones. They’d just started around the corner when a cry went up from the goblinkin.
Glancing over his shoulder, Juhg saw that the goblinkin had caught on to their mistake and had started back to the intersection. Juhg’s leg throbbed and he knew he wouldn’t be able to outrun them.
Craugh moved forward, the green ball of light staying close to him. “Go,” he commanded, pushing Juhg into motion. “I’ll hold them here.”
“Ye can’t hold them,” Raisho said. “There’s too many of ’em.”
Craugh turned on the young sailor. “I said I would hold them. Now get moving before you lose this chance.” The wizard strode into the tunnel to face their enemies.
“Let’s go,” Jassamyn said. “Craugh can fend for himself. He always has.”
Reluctantly, Juhg started forward, but he kept watch behind.
Wind whipped up around Craugh, lifting sand from the tunnel floor and whirling it into tiny dust devils. His robe flapped and his beard fluttered. Even the green ball of light rolled and changed with the force of the gathering winds.
Too late, Juhg saw the streams of sand open up all along the ceiling of the tunnel. He stopped, fought his way through Jassamyn and Raisho, and tried to get back to the wizard.
“Craugh, no!” he yelled. “The tunnel is going to collapse!” That was what his future self had been talking about. He saw that now. “Craugh, get out of there!”
But it was already too late.
“You’ve got to keep going, apprentice. Our fate is already written.” Craugh threw his hand forward and the winds that had gathered beside him rushed like maddened bulls into the ranks of his enemies. The wind blew the goblinkin down as the wizard had evidently desired, but it also tore away the flimsy supports that held up the wooden ceiling panel above him.
The sand became a rushing river, opening up and pouring down into the tunnel. Craugh went down under the onslaught, never having a chance at all. He sprawled, flat on the ground, as he was buried by a ton of sand that kept spilling down until the tunnel was choked with it.
In disbelief, Juhg stumbled and fell. His knees landed on the outer edges of the sand pile. Only then did he realize how close the rest of them had come to being buried alive along with the wizard.
Somehow, the green ball of light remained lit in the tons of sand. Its green glow filtered through the sand.
Frenzied, Juhg started digging into the sand with his bare hands. He tore his nails in his haste. Shock slammed into him as he struggled to comprehend what he had seen happen.
I should have known. I did know. I told myself. Juhg scooped at the sand, barely making a dent in the raw tonnage of it that choked the tunnel. For every handful he managed to scoop out, two more handfuls slid from the gaping hole in the ceiling.
A gentle hand fell on Juhg’s shoulder and pulled at him.
“Juhg,” Raisho said softly. “Give it up. He’s gone.”
“No,” Juhg cried stubbornly. “He’s not gone. He’s still i
n there. We can save him. We can.” He never stopped digging. “Help me, Raisho. Please. Help me.”
Jassamyn came around to the other side of him and looked at him. “Juhg, Craugh would want you to finish this.” Dust-smeared tears tracked her face as well and Juhg saw that she had to work to make herself speak. “He was my friend, too.”
“I was wrong about him.” Juhg couldn’t stop digging. He concentrated on the green glow that emanated from the pile of sand. “Don’t you see, Jassamyn? I was wrong about him and he died saving me.”
“Saving us, Juhg,” Jassamyn said. “He saved us so we could see to the Grandmagister’s safety.” She captured his hands. “That’s what we have to concentrate on now.”
Juhg struggled to take his hands from her, but her strength was too great for him. Then, without warning, the green glow beneath the sand melted away. Some of the darkness filled the tunnel again, kept at bay only by the torches on the tunnel walls. Giving in to his guilt, Juhg fell forward and wept unashamedly on Jassamyn’s shoulder.
“Juhg,” Raisho said gently, “we’ve got to go.”
Numb from everything he’d experienced, Juhg stood and walked back down the tunnel. There was no chance of pursuit from the goblinkin in that direction now. Craugh’s sacrifice had at least brought them that.
Inside the stone room where Tuhl had shown him the green gemstones, Juhg clasped them, felt them grow more physical in his hand, then he had them only a moment before the blackness pulled him in.
The mantis stood alone out in the great desert as Juhg had seen on his last visit. He stood his ground, refusing to go over to the creature. He didn’t want to talk with it. The pain inside him felt too raw, too big, for his body or his mind to contain.
“Librarian Juhg,” the mantis greeted.
Juhg said nothing.
“Don’t be angry at me,” the mantis said. “Or yourself.”
“Craugh is dead,” Juhg said.
The mantis walked over to him, barely leaving a trail in the sand. “I know.”
“You knew he was going to die.”
“Yes.”
“You should have told me.”
“If I had told you,” the mantis said as it stopped in front of him, “you might have tried to warn him.”
“I would have. I’ve been suspicious of Craugh for the last days that we were together.”
“You were right to be suspicious of him,” the mantis said. “He was one of those who brought The Book of Time into your world and allowed Lord Kharrion to use the book’s power for his own evil purposes.”
“How long have you known that?” Juhg asked.
The mantis regarded him with its placid eyes. “Always. As I have known everything else in this place.”
Juhg trembled with barely suppressed rage. “How many more are going to die?”
“None,” the mantis said.
The answer came too quickly and triggered instant resentment within Juhg. He asked another question that immediately came to mind. “Will I save the Grandmagister?”
Again, the answer came too quickly. “Yes.”
Juhg could constrain his emotions no longer. “You’re lying.”
Taking no offense, the mantis asked, “Why would I lie?”
“To keep me from giving up and quitting.”
“I already know if you give up or quit.”
Juhg turned away from the creature, no longer able to bear the sight of it.
“Even if I did not know that,” the mantis said, “I have learned much about you during our talks. You are not one who gives up easily, Librarian Juhg. When you see a path through a problem, no matter how treacherous or hurtful, you see it through to its conclusion. That is your nature. You can’t avoid or change that.”
“This has cost too much,” Juhg said. “I’m tired and I’m hurting. I can’t do this.”
The mantis let the silence between them stretch out for a time. “You have been chosen, Librarian Juhg.”
“By you?”
“No. Fate chose you. I only accepted you and offered what help I could.”
“Allowing my friend to die,” Juhg said, turning around with tears in his eyes, “is not what I would define as help.”
“Not today, perhaps,” the mantis agreed, “but in time you will come to recognize that Craugh did the only thing he could do: risk his life for the lives of his friends. You have done the same for your friends, when circumstances have called for it.”
Looking back over his years with the Grandmagister, Juhg knew that he had done exactly that dozens of times. He had been scared most of those times, and uncertain of the eventual outcome of his risk many of those times. He had never stinted, never held back. He wasn’t brave, he knew that, but he loved his friends fiercely and felt the responsibilities of the tasks he’d taken on.
“Don’t casually dismiss the sacrifice Craugh has made for you,” the mantis said. “If you forsake the mission your Grandmagister has given you, that is exactly what you’ll be doing. Here, at the end of this thing, Craugh has redeemed himself. Allow him that moment of nobility.”
Stung by the mantis’s soft words, Juhg couldn’t speak.
Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw his past self suddenly walking across the desert with the other mantis. Unable to stop himself, Juhg ran to his past self, shouting the same warning that he had heard only days ago in the Smoking Marshes.
His other self looked shocked and troubled for just an instant, then the other mantis took him by the hand and led him away as a blinding sandstorm rose up and blew over him.
Choking on the dust and grit, Juhg dropped to his knees. He knew he wouldn’t listen and he wouldn’t understand. He knew that his past self would suspect Craugh even more intently.
He could do nothing now just as surely as he could do nothing then. For a time, he remained there in the desert on his knees, baking in the sun and feeling the terrible weight of grief and loss. And even through that, he didn’t know if he would survive to rescue the Grandmagister.
Or even if the Grandmagister was still alive.
He was surprised at how long the mantis left him alone with his thoughts. Then again, in a place where time had no meaning, maybe it wasn’t long at all. The sun never moved from high overhead.
Finally, because he didn’t know how much time was passing in his world and he didn’t want to put any of the others in jeopardy, Juhg pushed himself to his feet and turned to the mantis.
“Is there anything else?”
The mantis looked at him. “I will tell you this: when you finally learn how to put the pieces of The Book of Time together, you will be in immediate danger.”
“Because The Book of Time opens a gateway to this place,” Juhg said.
“Yes. Tuhl told you that.”
“How do you know that?”
“You told me.”
“No, I didn’t,” Juhg said.
The mantis smiled a little. “Then you will tell me when we next meet again.”
“Then I will live?” Juhg asked. “I will be successful? Will I save the Grandmagister?”
“I can’t answer those questions.”
“But you already have. Didn’t you hear what you just said?”
In a louder voice, the mantis said, “Time grows short in your world. Finish your task, Librarian!” It raised an arm.
Before Juhg could say another word, the blackness overwhelmed him and swept him away.
When Juhg returned to his body in the stone room, in the Oasis of Bleached Bones, where the green gemstones were kept, the pain and raw emotion raging within him seemed even stronger. He rose to his feet with Raisho’s help and they went out into the tunnel.
Cobner and Raisho led the way, striding side by side through the tunnels. Goblinkin met them before they’d gone three paces from the doorway.
The dwarf swung his battle-axe, giving vent to loud battle cries. Beside him, Raisho swung his cutlass and knife in a flurry of blows. From the way they moved togeth
er, an onlooker would have sworn they’d fought together for years. And in between their cruel blows, meted out with vengeance in their hearts and designed to kill or incapacitate their enemies, Jassamyn bent her bow, sending arrow after arrow into the backs of fleeing goblinkin that sought to avoid the certain death that was the dwarven warrior and young sailor.
Two more turns through the tunnels led them to where a slave group was huddled against the wall. Goblinkin slavers stood over them, cutting them bloody with their vicious whips as they sought to maintain order.
The goblinkin turned at once and knew that the group bearing down on them was not their comrades. Eleven of them stood in a ragged line that filled the tunnel.
“Lay down yer weapons,” one of the goblinkin roared. “Lay down yer weapons an’ we’ll let ye live.”
“Jassamyn,” Cobner growled, “he’s makin’ my cars tired.”
The elven maid put a shaft through the speaker’s right eye, then another through the neck of a second man, and a third through the open mouth of a goblinkin seeking to yell out in warning or in anger. Before the first goblinkin dropped dead to the ground, the third was already falling.
Cobner and Raisho rushed the remaining goblinkin. Juhg stood in awe as they fought and slew. The goblinkin put up a brave defense for a moment or two, but in the end their fates were plain for all to see. The last two turned to flee for their lives. Jassamyn slew them both before they’d gone a dozen paces.
“Help us!” one of the slaves cried out. “Free us and we will fight with you!”
Without a word, Cobner and Raisho struck free the chains that bound the slaves. Slowly and painfully, the slaves stood on uncertain legs and took up weapons dropped by the dead goblinkin. Then Cobner led them forward, striking out once more for the exit.
The freed slaves were vengeful and bloodthirsty. No goblinkin they encountered was spared, and many of them died horrible deaths at the hands of those they had beaten and mistreated.
